During the next fall-winter TV season the Americans will watch the first season of “Chase”, the story of a marshall from Texas, specialized in chasing fugitives escaped from prison. Besides the plot (which seems to be interesting), there are other elements that make us understand the quality of the project. For example the producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, the man who more than others has realised one success after the other, such as the “CSI” (Las Vegas, New York, Miami), “Cold Case”, “without any trace” and many others. Another aspect is the distribution. For the first time with this project, Bruckheimer has been able to sell his product to NBC. A logical choice after so many successful serials for just one channel as CBS (“Dark Blue” and “The Whole Truth” for example). Meaningful for the Americans is even the title of the serial: Richard Chase infact was known as “the vampire from Sacramento”, a horrible serial killer that in few months killed 6 persons, drinking their blood and eating their bodies. Thankfully now there will be Jesse Metcalf, the main character, to free us from such concerns.
Let’s talk again about next TV season in the States to see what’s news. Let’s start from the first season of Mr Sunshine, with the coming back of Matthew Perry. Even if he has worked a lot after “Friends” (even as producer and playwright), it is quite sure that the sit-com genre is more suitable to the unforgettable Chandler. In the new project, produced by the trustful Greenlighted, he is quite a normal 40-years businessman at the San Diego Stadium that begins to think about his life. At his side the nice and beautiful Andrea Anders (Better of Ted, The Class, Joey…), the quite famous Allison Janney (154 episodes in The West Wing) and Nate Torrence (a young character actor). As other new serials, the mood of this production is light but no trivial, as it proposes a sort of revisitation os some life values, with nice and light spots. The set is New York and the shooting will begin in 3 weeks. You have really a few time.
The product placement as artistic or technical choice is for sure the best, being more credible, effective and often quite unexpensive. The World Cup players in South Africa for example are good testimonials for clothing and sports accessories. Sometimes they have got an agreement and are well paid, sometimes no. Not all the players get money for wearing shoes, legwarmers, gloves, hats, etc. The Companies interested by such an important event have been preparing for long time. Lots of new models have been presented on the market just at the beginning of the World Cup, and they are so visible and evident thanks to strong colors and special shapes, such as orange and gold, even for the soles and the studs, or brilliant yellow with huge brands on it. More or less the same happens with the T-shirts, where the “three stripes” of a famous German brand are present on the shoulders of almost half of the teams present. The lesson we can read is easy. To exploit such a visible and important event, it is necessary to plan in advance the placement, with well-known products, with great esthetical and/or technical content, so to make them essential for the players. Among the players who would not get the last technological shoes, or among the music stars the new guitar with vocal control pick up for his/her performance at the MTV Music Awards?
Just two months to the shooting of “This Means War”, a movie quite unconventional. It is a sort of pink comedy about two great friends who get in love with the same woman…and until here is fine. But the duel between them will become so huge to completely destroy the whole New York City. Interesting the actors, the wonderful Reese Witherspoon and the young but well-appreciated Chris Pine. Be careful that the same director, Mc.G, will create incredible situations. He is already famous for “Charlie’s Angels” the movie, the soundtrack of “The Coyote Ugly Girls”, producer of “The O.C.” and lots of nice videoclips, documentaries and commercials (Coca Cola and GAO for ex.) The production is signed by Will Smith and James Lassiter. The products fit for the product placement or brand integration are those about a comedy, clothing and accessories, cars and motorcycles, furniture, design, technology. This is one of the most interesting chance of the next season for what concerns brilliant comedies.
On June the 27th in Las Vegas it will be the “Daytime Emmy Award”, that will give a prize to the best main characters of the daily TV (that is morning and afternoon programs), different from the “Emmy Award” that give prizes to the best actors and anchormen at prime time. Late in August there will be even the “Late Emmy Award” dedicated to the best characters of the night programs.
All these prizes are always assigned by the “National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences” from New York and Los Angeles.
The night in Las Vegas is a nice and rich kermesse organised with great attention and programmed alldaylong with interviews, backstages, the red carpets and the final ceremony. The event will be broadcasted on the national channel CBS that last year obtained more than 8 millions of viewers with a 11% of share. To such a result it should be added the many web videos, about different millions.
A few days ago the nominees were announced, and here they are. We have had the chance to talk about many of them and with pleasure we are following their success.
2010 Daytime Emmy Award Nominees
Outstanding Drama Series All My Children (ABC)
The Bold and The Beautiful (CBS)
General Hospital (ABC)
The Young and the Restless (CBS)
Outstanding Lead Actor Peter Bergman as Jack Abbott on The Young and the Restless
Doug Davidson as Paul Williams on The Young and the Restless
Jon Lindstrom as Craig Montgomery on As the World Turns
Michael Park as Jack Snyder on As the World Turns
James Scott as E.J. DiMera on Days of Our Lives Continue Reading
From August the 6th to August the 8th it will be great fun at the Grant Park of Chicago. It’s the turn ofLollapalooza !!! The most beautiful, different and intelligent rock Festival… Beautiful as it is organised at the Grant Park … adn Chicago is really fond of its parks!! Beautiful even for its “line-up”: Green Day, Soundgarden, Lady Gaga, The Strokes, Phoenix, Jimmy Cliff and one hundred more of singers famous and not.
Beautiful as it is a festival full of young people but even, during the day, of families, friends who make barbecues, old 50s and 60s rockers and never a problem in all these years.
Different as it’s normal that after a famous band it’s the turn of a geek trio arrived with the parents… and it’s normal that at the end the two groups play together. Different as it is a festival organised with the aim to finance the maintenance of the town parks. Usually, the great and important festivals are a business, or sometimes a help for any human emergency. But since the beginning this festival has always appealed the most famous, innovative, shocking and well-known singers and all agree with pleasure to play for the town parks….. Isn’t it fantastic? Lollapalloza is even intelligent as it exploits the cause of the parks to talk about something else: for ex. the environment education, art contests, children entertainements..
Then the business that is however inteligent; Honda for example gives as gift for the winner of the “Rock & Recycled” competition, an Insight, an hybrid model.
This fomula works so well that Toyota has decided to become main sponsor. And many other brands such as Adidas, Sony, Budweiser etc. The same could be done by Italian brands interested in proposing themselves and become part of product placement projects connected with music, young people and the environment.
The web serials are ready for a high jump. The producers (the real ones) and lots of actors (the true ones) are working upon even if without any great results. A few projects with a good concept and worthy cast have started though ending quite soon. Like “Gotham” that relates the story of “those with a second chance” with primary actors such as Martha Byrne, winner of an Emmy and Michael Park, that got a nomination at the Emmys too.
Well, for the first episode with 22.000 visitors, for the second 13.000 and now at the 13th episode there are just 200 visitors. This serial has been visited in total from just 74.000 subscribers.
A little better for Streamboat , a mocking version of the show world with good actors as Michael O’ Leary and Beth Chamberin (both seen in the soap “Sentieri”). The first episode got 15.000 visitors and now is between 2.000 – 3.000 visits. Very few to interest the placement market. Different the case of the wonderful “Imaginary Bitches” (nominated for an Emmy in 2009) with 400.000 and 600.000 visits each episode and a total of about 7 millions. The story is a mix of funny and charming, something between “Friends” and “Sex and the City” with a cast of young, nice and really inspired actors. This project is connecting the independent, almost experimental and with low budgets productions with the serious Show Biz. The first project of those who really know how to produce a serial is a remake of Dynasty. Among the cast: Lilly Melgar (General Hospital), Tristan Rogers (General Hospital, Love Boat), Sandra Ferguson – Robinson (Anotherl World, Baywatch, General Hospital), John Callahan (Desperate Housewife, General Hospital, Falcon Crest, Santa Barbara), Taylor Stanley (Another World, Spin City), Derrel Witt (The Indruders) and lots more. The producers told me they are having lots of fun and have been able to create a wonderful mood. This serial is really good for luxury products (jewels, clothes and accessories), for the house (design and furniture) and the free time (auto, motorcycle, sport, gardening, etc.). To underline that Dynasty is the only serial by Aaron Spelling that has not got any remaking until now. Thanks to the peculiarity of the web, the news and the improvements of this project will be worldwide and point of reference for all that follows.
An interesting datum that maybe is known only throughout the specialized market is that in the United States there is a huge market called “Italian Sounding” where lots of products coming from everywhere are presented as “Italian”. This fraud costs about 50 billions of euros. An example: last year while I was in New York I wanted to eat “pasta with pesto”; I went to buy some “Italian pesto” in a very famous gastronomy to realise reading the back label that it came from Chile.
Now, to regain this money there are a few solutions. One is to promote the wine and food products through TV productions dedicated to high level cuisine. Few times ago we talked about Martha Stewart, but we have to quote even “The Rocco Show”, of which I want to talk more in a future post….and the “America’s Next Great Restaurant”. A mix between a serial and a reality in which a group of future chefs get in competition to obtain the funding to realise their dream. The shootings will begin in a month and the anchorman will be chef Bobby Flay. In each episode there will be different locations to place the products, that will be managed not only in a professional contest but from a professional point of view. One month is enough to plan….
An interesting news that is going around these days is worth our attention. Even if the interested people do not know or pretend not to know anything about, it is almost sure that Microsoft and Peter Chernin (ex Chairman of News Corp, founded and managed by Rupert Murdoch) are thinking about a new TV channel for the Xbox owners. At the beginning the cost of the subscription will be almost nothing , one or two dollars maximum and it will allow to the subscribers to download updating videogames, or shows and entertainment programmes for which Fox and Twentieth Century have been reaching an agreement.
Such a novelty is interesting from a mediatic and technological point of view, as well as to fight the wild downloading through the very low cost of the subscription. Important subjects I want to talk about in the future. But this blog is connected to product placement and this is what I want to speak about. It’s well-known that a good market of the placement belongs to videogames; the banners along the cars and motorcicles circuit are with fees, as well the verbal mention and the hands on the famous people, not to speak about the brand integration operations. Continue Reading
It was the same Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA), during the New York Auto Show in the Big Apple in these days, to disclose that its cars will appear in the sequel of Sex & the City. And the reasons are very simple. “It’s a feminine movie and actually one of the most important targets”. “Besides”, has added the marketing dept, “the investment has not been superior to the organisation of a series of events that would not have reached such an incredible number of persons”, maybe neither with the same efficacy and prestige we can add.Moreover this will be the first of a numbers of placement in TV (reality and sitcom we do not know any details), besides the sponsorship of the next US Open Tennis in New York (Flushing Meadows) during the summer. Their project is to have “the major visibility in terms of product placement with respect to any other luxury cars in the world”. This will be the occasion to present new models as hydrogen O emission ones or the new Class E.
Since time the Tv formats for teenagers are a sort of mix (or “crossover”)between music and light comedy, with a little bit of action, good feelings , humour and comics.The first examples get back to the 60s when the serial “The Monkees” (a sort of stupid Beatles clone) allowed the band to sell more than the real “Fab Four” that they imitated.In the 70s other formulas like the glossy “Partridge Family”, inspired to the true story of Cowllins Family that a few years before had obtained quite a good success in the USA. Even in this case, the record sell-out was quite a good success, in fact both in 2001 and 2005 there were a few rieditions. Again in that years, David Soul, the famous “Hutch” in “Starsky and Hutch” in one episode played the guitar. At the same time his LP was played around and reached the first place in the most important music top tens….. and it was not the last time. In the 80s there was the musical “Fame”, in the 90s the R&B (“Will the Prince of Bell Air”, above all). In the last few years there have been quite two phenomenons: High School Music (the updated version of “Fame”) and the nice Hannah Montana, a sort of mp3 version of Happy Days.
However the most interesting among the recent productions is “The Jonas” by Walt Disney Continue Reading
In 2009 Lady Gaga was proclaimed the artist of the year. Innovation, provocation, intuition and long-view have made of Lady Gaga a rich, famous and appreciated artist. The 2010 has begun much better with an incredible mediatic appearance. Still at the end of 2009 she has begun to gather prizes (Stylemaker Award) to do her best at the “People’s Choiche Awards” thus opening, a few hours ago, the Grammy Awards with Elton John. This eclectic artist is really interesting as she has considered product placement as an essential resource both for “fund recruirement” as well “look scouting”. Thus the video “Bad Romance” for example, has officially confirmed 8 product placements with brands such as “Nemiroff” Vodka, “HP”, “Nintendo “Wii”, Burberry, Safari glasses, etc.
Even if the musical videos have always been a way to promote brands and products through product placement, at least in Europe this opportunity is still nowadays undervalued. On the contrary it is an unexpensive, “well targeted” mean, quick in terms of results and easy to realise. And the big/medium Companies that one year ago believed in this great outsider of the Show Biz today can well enjoy themselves.
Yesterday the new “Up in the Air” went out in the Italian cinemas and already got 6 nominations for Golden Globe. A good and nice movie by Jason Reitman and George Clooney well demonstrates his great direction and interpretation as it happened in “Burn after reading” by Cohen Brothers. A few days before Christmas the most important American movie journalist (Brook Barnes) wrote an article between fun and polemic about the massive product placement of which American Airlines and Hilton Hotels had got profit. The story is in fact about a man that spends most of his time and life between hotels and airports, going around the USA dismissing the employeers that their managers have not the courage to do. A few days after the coming out of the movie the two big Companies had underlined that for that presence no money was paid for. And such declaration provoked again the journalist who, in another article, wrote that this was just half of the truth. After the going out of the movie in the USA, both around American Airlines as well Hilton Hotels there were lots of promotional events, parties and much more with the intention to profit for such a great placement. It is important to underline that such a marketing operation had got very good results in such a difficult economic moment. As usual, the Americans have clapped in front of this third revelation obtaine by both the Companies.
For years the new Realities have changed format and public. In Europe it is true that a few quite old titles still exist but the road towards the new generation of Shows has been opened somewhere else. Donald Trump, for example, after the great success (even in Europe) of “The apprentice” is realising a new project that will begin its shooting by the end of the month. The title is “ DONALD J. TRUMP’S FABULOUS WORLD OF GOLF” and it is about an exclusive golf tournament where Hollywood actors, singers and musicians, politicians, top managers and businessmen, several VIPs are taking part. With the typical American mentality, these characters should try to win and at the same time do two other things: Business & Charity. Business: it is quite known that on a golf field it is possible to make more affairs than during a board of directors.You can swear that Donald Trump will try his best to promote partnerships between movie producers and musicians for example, or between athletes and sponsors and so on, thus stimolating a sort of “brain storming” between one putt and the other (everything on line and under the eyes of millions of people). Then there is the other aspect, socially worthier and technically more innovative, charity. The cachet of the players and the final prize is fact will be given on charity. This is not the “Intelligent” TV but by sure the “interesting” one. And interesting it could be for that fashion Italian Company that will wear the coolest VIPs of the planet with its clothes, jewels or accessories. From now on this can be possible.
In January 2008, almost two years ago, people talked about the possible adaptation for the cinema of a famous literary character for children of the 50s (Eloise, in fact, a clever girl of 11). Then there was the crisis and neither the synpathy of the girl or her charming nanny (Uma Thurman) could convince the producers to go on with the project. Today, on the contrary, thanks to the positive economic trends, the shooting is in the works for the end of January 2010. The premises are good both for the cast as well as for its background. The books in fact were sold and are sold nowadays very well and they have become one of those phenomenons called “longsellers” (or classic). The Disney Production has moreover already realised two episodes for TV with great success.The movie declination can be considered the right and proper step. The production is now looking for a “licensing Deal” for the clothes of the little Eloise and her nanny Uma Thurman. We don’t have much time but being Italians we can do it !
